Photo: Sina Weibo

Guanxian County in East China’s Shandong Province launched on Saturday a rectification campaign of existing bad old social traditions including ghost marriage, where two dead people are married to each other, after a 16-year-old girl who fell to death from a building last December and her corpse was sold by her adoptive parents for 66,000 yuan ($9,153) for ghost marriage which sparked heated discussions. 

The Party secretary of the county Zhang Xuehong stressed the work of changing bad old habits and customs during a meeting on Sunday and ensured the implementation of cremation of the deceased and assured the public of free of charge for the cremation service and the transportation service of the corpse. 

According to Zhang, the authority will collect and destroy the cemetery fake flowers, regulate monuments and scattered graves and crack down on ghost marriages.  

This campaign came after a 16-year-old girl named Xiao Dan (pseudonym) died of a suicidal jump from a building last December and her biological father surnamed Sun revealed that her corpse was sold by her adoptive parents for ghost marriage with a boy who also passed away. 

Sun claimed that his wife got pregnant unexpectedly in 2005 and they decided to give Xiao Dan away since the family were experiencing financial difficulties, The Paper reported on November 15. 

According to Sun, Xiao Dan had vented about her adoptive parents’ long-term verbal abuse to her close friend, which Sun believes was the cause of her suicide. Besides, Sun insisted that Xiao Dan’s adoptive parents should be charged with the crime of domestic violence and the crime of insulting a corpse for selling Xiao Dan’s corpse for ghost marriage. 

However, Sun’s allegation was not accepted by the local police in October this year to file a criminal charge against Xiao Dan’s adoptive parents due to lack of evidence. 

Later, Sun decided to file a lawsuit to the court to request confirmation that the adoption agreement was invalid. 

The incident sparked a heated discussion and many netizens expressed their sympathy to the poor girl who was given away to other by her biological parents and questioned the motive of her biological father. 

Legal experts explained that frequent verbal abuse by adoptive parents may constitute domestic violence, but since Xiao Dan is dead, it is difficult determine that her adoptive parents constitute domestic violence, according to jstv.com. 

Besides, there indeed exist the act of buying and selling a deceased person’s corpse for ghost marriage, but there is no crime of buying and selling corpse in China’s laws at present. Thus, the act of disposing of a corpse with a ghost marriage is not in itself a crime. 

Although there is a lack of legal norms at present, it does not mean that ghost marriage is affirmed by law. Such a bad old habit and customs should not only be prohibited but also should be given penalties for more effective regulation. 

Global Times